Fogbound Lake
by Tikaya
Summary: Decades ago, Uxie let a single pokémon escape with knowledge of Fogbound Lake. She's still suffering the consequences. Her siblings are not amused.
1. Uxie

"Oh come on, you're cheating!"

"She's not cheating! Don't tell me you forgot to update your board!"

"What are you implying here, [Azelf], I did _not_ forget to update my board!"

The spike of anger in Mesprit's mental message has Azelf sputter a wave of indignation over our psychic connection.

"Woah! Back off, sis!" Azelf doesn't cower for long, and he pushes back hard. He manages to transmit the image of his game board _angrily_.

I cross-reference it with the board I put up at its usual place: under the great willow tree with branches that reach down into the waters of Fogbound Lake. As expected, my own board reflects Azelf's perfectly—I have no trouble keeping up with our game session.

I lean back and check the position of the sun. It's already late afternoon, and the sun's red light slowly mixes with the glow of the Time Gear hidden deep beneath the surface of my lake.

Usually, game day would have been long over—Mesprit isn't a strong opponent. But against all odds, today's game already lasts over an hour, and she's fighting viciously for victory. It seems obvious to me that her dwindling number of pieces is her only reason for calling the board into question. She and I both have our own board for reference, but Azelf acts as the referee, and only what's on his board counts.

While Mesprit and Azelf bicker over the discrepancies, I pick an apple and lean back in the soft breeze. A steady hum fills the air as the native illumise and volbeat return and prepare for their evening dance. None of them possess even a sliver of intelligence.

It would have been a very lonely assignment, watching over a Time Gear that no one is supposed to know about, far away from my siblings. But we aren't three powerful psychics for nothing. It took us only a few weeks to set up a psychic network and a few decades more to invent a game that could be played remotely.

I let my mind wander past the edge of Fogbound Lake and into Foggy Forest below. I can feel the feral minds of pokémon living in the every-present fog. I've watched them for hundreds of years now, and rarely the inhabitants in and around Fogbound Lake develop any sort of intelligence. Even if they do, the harsh terrain offers little in regards to agriculture. So they leave to make a good life past the mountain range that separates Foggy Forest from the civilized regions of their world.

"Alright, [rock] to Fire-7," Mesprit says and snaps me out of my musings. Her telepathic addition clarifies which of the two rocks she wishes to move.

I pick up her pink token with telekinesis and move it to the designated tile, then contemplate the board for a while. "I move my [psychic] to Water-5."

"Hah, I knew it! Fairy to Water-5!" There's only one fairy, so she doesn't need to specify.

It's an interesting play and I grow silent as I go through my options.

Meanwhile, Azelf can't help himself. "Wait, [Mesprit], are you absolutely sure you updated Uxie's play?"

"Do you want me to come to your lake and beat you up?"

I can feel the smile in his message. "Just checking."

As I inform them where I move my dragon, I come back to the telepathic sweep of Foggy Forest. A flickering thought has caught my attention and I zero in on it. _What...?_

It's another psychic! A chimecho! Just at the base of the mountain. A chimecho with _intelligence_ and _memory_. I withdraw from her thoughts before she can spot my intrusion. She's travelling with two companions and I focus on their thoughts instead.

Mesprit distracts me with her move, and I silence her.

"Hold on a second, I have intelligent life forms entering the forest!"

Activity on the psychic plane dies down to let me examine the intruders at the edge of Foggy Forest. I'm not one to pry into the private thoughts of my fellow pokémon, but the Time Gear is too important. I limit myself to surface thoughts and dive into the mind of the corphish next to Chimecho.

"They're looking for Fogbound Lake," I say a minute later. It doesn't come as a huge surprise. Why else would anyone travel into this inhospitable area?

"Do they know about the Time Gear?" Mesprit asks, sounding deceptively neutral.

Azelf doesn't try to hide his alarm. "Screw that, who are they? Can you take them on?"

I send out two quick, telepathic bursts that roughly translate as "[Mesprit, I'm working on that.] [Azelf, three intruders. Chimecho, dugtrio, corphish.]"

"That doesn't sound too bad," he acknowledges, but otherwise lets me do my thing.

"Nothing about the Time Gear," I say finally, leaving the unassuming trio behind and returning to myself. "But they think there's an unspecified treasure at Fogbound Lake."

"You're too soft," Mesprit chides. "Never should have left the weavile with that knowledge. Now you have to deal with a bunch of lunatics every year."

"It's not happening every year," I say, somewhat defensively. "You know dark types are hard to affect."

But she's right. A couple of decades back, I erased the memories of an exploration team that came too close to Fogbound Lake. As I had to learn a year later, I didn't do a good enough job on their dark type leader and now a rumour's spreading about how I was watching over a treasure in Fogbound Lake—and that I was prone to erase memories.

I sigh heavily. One mistake and I'm still feeling the consequences decades later. But I still feel queasy at the thought of killing to protect the Time Gear.

"Oh well, you got that fog of yours," Azelf says." That has beaten pretty much all of your visitors so far."

"And even if they get to your lake, you know what to do, "Mesprit adds, nonchalant.

They shouldn't talk like that. They rarely have visitors. I cross my arms and say, "Of course." Some of my irritation tints the message and my siblings retreat from my thoughts.

"So, you know I moved that rock again, right?" Mesprit pipes up after she left me to myself for—in her eyes—an adequate amount of time.

I bristle. I've already mapped out my way to victory. "[Psychic] to Ice-4."

Even as our game continues, I can't help but come back to the invading trio. Something about their buzzing surface thoughts and light conversation seems off to me.

Three turns from victory, I realize why the situation worries me so much.

I fill my message with a psychic reminder of who I'm talking about. "[They] are part of a bigger group! There's more of them coming!"

It's enough to startle Mesprit from her game. "But why?! What do these people think they'll find?!"

"Who else is coming?" Azelf asks, pragmatic as always.

I hesitate and they read my apprehension in the silence.

"Oh, you can't be serious!" Mesprit snaps, adding an image of her rolling her eyes. "Just read their frickin' thoughts! As you keep saying: _you're_ the best telepath among us!"

"Dialga is counting on us," Azelf adds when I say nothing.

The privacy of three random pokémon is not worth Dialga's sanity, I remind myself.

As a psychic-type herself, Chimecho might pick up on my long-distance prodding so I focus on her companions again. I never liked to read the thoughts of cluster pokémon. There's something unpleasant about beings with multiple brains—I stay away from Dugtrio. Corphish it is.

He has a few mental barriers—no doubt the work of his psychic-type friend—but obviously no clue how to use them effectively. A lesser telepath would have run into the walls and alerted him to the intrusion. I slip into his mind without him suspecting anything.

_Corphish is a proud member of the Wigglytuff Guild. There are many guilds out there, but he knows that the Wigglytuff Guild is the best. He's easily irritable and prone to cut others off, but he'll do anything for the ten other members of the guild and the two allies that also came along on the expedition. Wigglytuff is an eccentric guild leader and he launched the expedition to find the treasure of Fogbound Lake. Everyone is very excited about the treasure. No one is sure what the treasure is._

I leave his memories once I have an overview on who else to expect in Foggy Forest in the next few hours. For an inexplicable reason, the guild administration thought it a good idea to split up their party into multiple groups. The three that arrived early seem motivated enough to bear the fog for a significant amount of time. At least there's no dark-type this time around and I ready myself for a smooth memory deletion in case they stumble upon Steam Cave.


	2. Fyra: Starting Line

Fine tendrils of smoke rise from below the base board and Fyra stops spinning her fire stick. She puts the equipment aside and gathers the dry leaves and wood powder in her hands, gently blowing on it.

Once she ignites the tinder, she moves it to the wood in the center of their stone circle and reaches for the kindling. She blinks as the small sticks surge up on their own accord and float towards the fire, placing themselves atop the tinder.

Fyra looks up and spots Chimecho drifting towards her which explains the sudden onset of free will in the dead plants.

"Thank you," she tells the floating wind chime and returns to blowing on her growing fire.

"No problem," comes Chimecho's strange, echo-y voice. She positions herself next to the fire, hovering there without a sound and adding to the otherworldly atmosphere. The rolling white fog surrounding and penetrating the camp site swallows all noise. Fyra has to strain to see the rest of the clearing and the tents that Chimecho just finished setting up. The lack of sound weighs heavily on her ears and she's waiting for the fire to pick up strength and fill the air with the crackling of splintering wood.

Chimecho gives off a bell-like chime and when Fyra glances back at her, the psychic's long tail is curled up in confusion.

"You do know you're a fire-type, right?"

There's accusation in her voice.

"I am aware of that," Fyra says. She volunteered to make a fire... Or more specifically Naninamo volunteered her since the moistness of Foggy Forest brought back her old nemesis: the common cold. She's sitting out the effects of the illness. Her ability to start fires came in handy when her cheerful team leader effectively side-lined her until she recovers. That ability just doesn't show in a way the guild members expected. "I have been unable to produce fire attacks as of yet."

"That's a shame," Chimecho says. For a moment, it looks like she wants to add to that, but no words follow.

The psychic is close now and Fyra can't help but feel pressured by her presence. She casts for something to say and settles on: "Not really. I am more than capable of assisting my team without elemental support." Despite her anxiousness spiking, her voice remains flat. She reaches for the walrein fang she acquired shortly before this expedition. Her weapon's smoothness calms her.

Aside from her expressive tail, Chimecho's body is rigid and unmoving and she usually relies on her telepathy to convey her mood. With Fyra's psychic 'absence', she has to fill her voice with incredulity to get her point across. "You should loosen up a little, you know that?"

Fyra freezes on the spot, as if caught doing something naughty. She lets go of the white fang and seems to collapse into herself. "I...try," she allows with a forlorn look.

Chimecho flinches, obviously not expecting such a strong reaction. "That's...uh... That's good! You're doing great!" In an effort to appear busy, she rustles the kindling to allow more air into the fire.

Fyra says nothing, only partially because she's fighting back a cough.

"So...uhm," Chimecho begins again. Until the other expedition members return with food and water, and news about Fogbound Lake, there is nothing else to do but make conversation which apparently, they're both not very good at. "You're also a chimchar and you have this... you know..." She extends her tail, pointing awkwardly at Fyra. "Your ass is burning."

Fyra raises a brow, the closest she's ever come to "Oh really? I hadn't noticed." Out loud, she clarifies, "The fire isn't hot enough to ignite anything. It seems mostly cosmetic." Naninamo also appreciates it as a light source after dark.

"Huh, who would have thought?"

Their conversation peters out. The fire keeps growing and spreads warmth in a small circle. They watch the ever-shifting fog for a while, until Chimecho says, "You're still as silent as a grave."

Fyra knows what she's referring to, but she's given up on ever finding out why her mind can't be read. So far, it has been a great inconvenience and whenever she thinks about it, a strange feeling overcomes her... As if it has caused her great trouble before she lost her memories as well.

"Are you...Are you alright now?" Chimecho finishes awkwardly. The psychic still remembers their disastrous first encounter, shortly after Naninamo brought an amnesiac and catatonic chimchar to the hospital.

"I guess so," Fyra says. Her memories of that time are an indistinct blur and she prefers not to think of it. "I cannot remember anything from before...but I'm doing well, thank you."

She sneezes and withstands the building headache with typical, mild frustration.

The fire surges, hot and bright. It doesn't require her attention anymore. Chimecho tries to draw her into small talk, moving away from depressing topics, but Fyra doesn't have a favourite colour, a favourite food and in general isn't good at keeping conversations going.

"Ah well," Chimecho mutters at some point. "Still, I rather have you here than those three creeps the guild master was so fond of."

"You mean Team Skull?" Fyra asks. Try as she might, she can't keep the disgust from her voice.

"I see we have something in common!" The amused tone in Chimecho's voice gives the impression that the psychic is smiling. Her tail curls. "So, your team leader told you about them?"

Fyra nods. Naninamo handled the talks with the guild when Wigglytuff invited them for the expedition, but he later told her that Team Skull had also been on the shortlist.

Chimecho has drifted away but her expressionless head is still turned toward Fyra. The expectation in her stare fills the air with static and Fyra is glad for the coughing fit that lets her delay a response. What more does Chimecho want from her? Is there something she should add?

Fyra is even gladder when a faint noise makes it through the oppressive fog, and she can turn away from the psychic. She reaches for her walrein fang and rises to her feet, still coughing.

With her telepathy, Chimecho can reach even further and her tail curves inward, a sign of relief or happiness. Fyra lowers her weapon but remains standing.

"Bidoof's group is back," Chimecho tells her, drifting forward to welcome her guild members and the external team leader accompanying them. "They found water! …Why didn't they use the Return Orbs I made?"

Fyra can guess. Naninamo is a force of personality that neither Bidoof nor the guild's newest recruit, Meditite, are used to handling.

The blurry outline of three figures makes it through the billowing fog past their line of tents. They arrive from the north side where Loudred had set up their table and the sitting logs.

"Yes!" Meditie's ringing voice pierces the fog. It comes from further away than the few meters of distance suggest.

Bidoof's nasal, "Yup, yup, Chatot didn't even listen to us," follows suit.

Naninamo emerges first, the blue of his scales a bright spot of colour in an otherwise featureless white. He has somehow taken point despite Bidoof being in command. His eyes are wide, the blue of his iris drowning in the white. "So, you went to sleep without food?!"

He's so fixated on their conversation that he nearly stumbles over the log the expedition uses as a bench. He grabs the edge of the table and stabilizes himself shortly before a yellow aura surrounds him as Meditie tries to catch him telekinetically.

_She doesn't seem to have a good grasp on her psychic abilities yet. _Fyra blinks, wondering where that thought came from.

Meanwhile, Naninamo laughs and waves his concerned friends away. Taking their advice to heart, he gives his surroundings a cautious look. His entire face lights up as his eyes fall upon Fyra and he waves enthusiastically.

This time, Bidoof reacts before Naninamo can run into the log again, and he steers the excitable totodile past the wooden obstacle.

"Fyra!" Naninamo shouts once he thinks he's in hearing range. His voice is loud and booming, and a comfort for Fyra's ears. Now, Chimecho has other pokémon she can converse with.

Her team leader stops in front of her, gesturing widely. "Fyra, how are you? Do you still have a headache? I brought you water! Oh hi Chimecho!" His rapid-fire speech comes to a halt while he considers the floating psychic. There's a brief pause that tells Fyra that Chimecho answers him telepathically. She ignores the pang of loneliness and longing.

Naninamo nods along to the telepathic message. He reaches into his satchel and pulls out the blue Return Orb. "We still have it, don't worry!"

He stares at the orb a second longer while Bidoof and Meditie greet their fellow guild member. Fyra tries to be unobtrusive and manages a flat "Hello," when Bidoof approaches her.

"Right!" Naninamo chimes suddenly, putting the Return Orb back into his satchel to retrieve a water pouch. It's so full, the liquid barely sloshes around. "Here, you should drink something! Chansey told me you have to drink a lot when you have a cold!"

Who was Fyra to disagree with the expert opinion of a healer? She smiles and takes the pouch. Her voice doesn't reflex the gratitude that fills her. "Thank you."

Naninamo hugs her, shuddering slightly because he keeps forgetting that chimchar emit heat. Naninamo is cold, his body temperature matching the outside world. Fyra makes sure that he's comfortable before she leans into the embrace. She closes her eyes for the moment, letting the build-up anxiety fall from her. It's only a brief moment but Fyra already feels like she can handle talking with the guild.

Just in time for the second exploration team to return to the camp. A few meters away from the table and the fire, Chimecho has cleared the grass and drawn a circle into the ground. Her Return Orbs are connected to this patch of ground and now, Sunflora and Loudred appear inside the circle, the former having her hand-like leaf wrapped around Loudred's arm. She's holding a blue Return Orb in her other leaf which is now rapidly darkening into a dull grey.

The enthusiastic sunflower lets go of her friend and shouts a cheerful greeting that the guild members echo. Loudred clears the arrival spot and heads for the table and Sunflora follows him after she hands the spent Return Orb to Chimecho.

The psychic tells her something with telepathy that elicts an "Oh my gosh!" and a giggle from Sunflora and even Naninamo who also catches her message.

Fyra swallows and reminds herself that Chimecho doesn't exclude her on purpose. There are no dark-type guild members and speaking telepathically comes natural to her.

Naninamo watches the proceedings and nods to himself. He turns back to Fyra, patting her on the shoulder. "Okay! You sit back down and relax, I'll help the others unpack."

He doesn't wait for Fyra to follow his instructions and skips toward the table, cheerfully inserting himself into their ongoing conversation. Fyra sinks to the ground, opening the water pouch, while the camp erupts into activities.

It doesn't take long for the rest of the guild to arrive. They all left this morning in teams of two and three as the guild master preferred it.

After refreshing the teleporting power of the spent Return Orbs, Chimecho oversees dinner. It's a group effort and even Fyra can contribute by taking up mushroom cutting duty.

The entire expedition team joins her by the fire while they wait for to soup to heat and everyone breaks of into small groups. Naninamo and his team mates settle close to Fyra. He uses the opportunity to talk about their adventure.

"So, we ran into this huge group of breelom!" Naninamo begins, raising his claws for a gesture.

"It was two of them. And a shroomish!" Bidoof interjects, his whiskers twitching nervously.

Naninamo nods in an absent sort of way and doesn't acknowledge the interruption. He grins and the fire's light dances on his rows of sharp teeth "But Antar chased them off with a huge psychic! It looked so cool!"

He uses Meditie's given name, reflecting his good relationship with her. As far as Fyra knows, they already met before she joined the guild. Fyra has only just met her and would never dare to use her actual name in conversation.

Meditite hums approvingly but doesn't get a word in edge as the totodile ploughs ahead and outlines the rest of their forest exploration. It's honestly quite interesting and Fyra listens with rapt attention. She sips her water and basks in Naninamo's never-wavering cheerfulness. He draws attention to himself like a magnet and people have an easy time engaging with him, leaving her able to sit back and simply observe. When he's around, Fyra can manage her anxiety, and even when he asks an opinion of her, it doesn't take long to find a suitable answer.

As more and more guild members join in with their own stories, she's allowed to fade further into the background. Not counting the meet-up this morning, it's the first time Fyra is confronted with the entire guild. Once again, she's glad that Naninamo is around to talk for her. She doesn't know these pokémon well and had her reservation about accepting the invitation to this expedition. Naninamo on the other hand was thrilled for this opportunity and she follows him wherever he goes.

"Fyra!" Naninamo exclaims, shaking her from her thoughts. She's been aware of the conversation topic and turns to him to show him that he has her attention. "Did you hear? While we ran into this huge group of breelom ("There were only two!"), Croagunk's team found this really cool statue in the middle of the forest! It's just sitting there, like, who put it there, hm? We should check it out tomorrow!"

She gives him a questioning look. Does he hope she'll trigger a vision that'll tell her who built it? She considers the idea and decides that it's at least worth a shot.

A different thought strikes Naninamo and his usual twinkle leaves his eyes. "That is, if you're going to be okay tomorrow?"

Fyra checks in with her headache, the best identifier on how far along her cold is, and nods tentatively. "I guess so."

That's good enough for Naninamo and he turns to the shifty croagunk on his other side. "Say, you really don't know what the statue is?"

The blue fighting-type chuckles darkly, as seems to be his custom. "It's very old. Kinda weathered and all. Hard to tell what to make of it."

"I think it's a legendary pokémon!" Diglett shouts from the other side of the fire. The little ground-type rises slightly from his hole, revealing even more brown skin. "I think it's supposed to be Groudon, the landmaker!"

Groudon...

Fyra freezes, her fingers tightening around the latch of her water pouch.

Something stirs in her. She's only partially aware of how her breathing quickens. Alongside the faint echo of a memory, a crushing hollowness rises in her that leaves her sweating and afraid. Fyra knows that she's going back to a bad place, staring at darkness buried deep in her mind but she can't stop the descent. She watches, paralyzed, as her mind closes off. Everything she's worked for… everything that makes her a person… _everything_ has vanished with her memories. She has lost her purpose and emptiness awaits her. A maelstrom pulls her deeper into the embrace of helplessness and the unshakable feeling that she has nothing more to live for.

In a desperate attempt to wrench free from the crippling thoughts, she scuttles closer to Naninamo. He's talking, telling another story, and when she approaches, he turns to her. Fyra can't speak and only stares at him while more and more pieces of her break apart.

Can he see the losing battle going on inside her mind?

Naninamo doesn't interrupt his story but he does take her hand and squeezes tightly. Suddenly, it feels like he's talking directly to her. She clings to him, taking deep breaths, and focuses on his voice like so long ago. Even if she can't hear his words, they tumble over her splintered mind and fill in the cracks until she returns to a semblance of normalcy.

It takes much longer for her shaking to stop.

After dinner, the guild's second-in-command determines the guard schedule for the night. As honory members of the guild, Naninamo and Fyra won't have to watch the camp for the first night. Naninamo sighs in relief.

"I really don't like staying up all night," he confines into Fyra as they head into their tent.

Fyra can only empathize to a certain extend. "It's only a fraction of the night. We are a huge group." She doesn't remind him that they might not be except from guard duty tomorrow.

She seals of the tent flap and turns around only to be confronted with an unusually thoughtful totodile. Naninamo has always been attuned to her moods and now is no exception.

His bright eyes focus on her and he tilts his head. "Fyra, are you really okay?"

She sits down on her blanket and refrains from hugging her knees. It takes her a moment to find an adequate answer. Her voice remains even. "Something about this forest makes me nervous. We need to be very careful." It doesn't reflect her complex feelings on the matter. She's not sure what caused her panic attack earlier.

Naninamo seems to understand. "We're going together tomorrow, so it'll be fine, right?" he says and as always, the unmistakable cheer in his voice lets her feel secure.

"Right," she says.

"Okay!" Naninamo plops down on his own blanket. "Let's find Fogbound Lake tomorrow! Good night!"

_Yes, let's do that_, she thinks but doesn't say out loud. She curls up and mumbles a "good night" of her own. It takes her a lot longer than usual to go through her evening meditation and to power down her chimchar flame. The latter she doesn't mind so much as Naninamo falls asleep faster with a light source.

Fogbound Lake.

Unlike Groudon before, this name stirs a different emotion in her, and she finds herself looking forward to this place with no clear reason why.

* * *

_A/N_

_This is related to my other MD story._

_Relevant Canon Changes:_

_Naninamo and Fyra founded their team "Nebel" without joining the guild. The guild doesn't seem to be a necessary step to register a team (or do you think that Team Skull was once part of the guild?). Instead, it seems to just show eager young pokémon the ropes and prepares them for one day being part of or leading a team of their own._

_Naninamo's character is vastly different than the player's partner in the games. It meshes better with what I have planned for the story. The character arc for the player's partner is good and you can always relive it by playing the game. _

_A Meditie named Antar joined the guild instead of the player's team. She and Bidoof are the ones who faced the Perfect Apple crisis._

_Team Nebel had a significant adventure prior to this story that convinced Wiggletuff to add them to the expedition. I might write about that but for now, Fogbound Lake. In case you read my other story, this adventure is related to how Green, the Machop, joined their team. _

_Thanks for reading!_


	3. Naninamo: Wonders of the Forest

Usually, Naninamo takes Fyra with him wherever he goes. Things are easier, when she's around because she is smart.

Fyra can't join him the next day because she's still sick. Which is super unfair. She hasn't been sick in forever and now she can't even leave camp!

Naninamo is with Chatot this time because Chatot thinks Naninamo's bad at leading a team. He should ask Fyra. Fyra thinks he's doing great.

Going with Chatot is boring. Chatot keeps lecturing about the forest and the pokémon in it and that they shouldn't lose hope just because they haven't found Fogbound Lake yet. Naninamo tries to listen but many of Chatot's words are complicated and big. He hums and lets his mind drift off to more exciting things. They don't visit the statue today.

They don't visit it the next day either, which is stupid. Naninamo is with the guild master and Wigglytuff is funny and mysterious and they can talk for hours. Wigglytuff is also very smart. He thinks Uxie won't let them find Fogbound Lake unless they show her that they are good people.

Uxie is a mind-reader, a bit like Chimecho, so Naninamo thinks very hard about how much he wants to see Fogbound Lake's treasure and asks if maybe he can take a peek? Chimecho is always listening to his thoughts so maybe Uxie is too?

He doesn't get an answer. It also takes a week until he gets to see the statue. By then, Fyra is over her cold. Fyra always gets sick so easily. It's like all the illness are annoyed that she got to forget about them because she lost her memories.

Naninamo has already forgotten their first night in the forest. Back, when talking about Groudon almost made Fyra leave. He doesn't like thinking about bad things that happen.

Diglett is showing them the way to the statue. He and his father are good at navigating the forest and the fog. It's because they dig their own tunnels and that's how they always remember where they are, Diglett said. Only sometimes, the tunnels collapse because other pokémon are rude or don't pay attention. Naninamo understands that last thing. Sometimes, it's hard for him too, to pay attention.

Fyra is good at that though. That's why they are such a good team. Green, who stayed at home, also pays attention, but it's different from Fyra, like… Fyra only notices and remembers certain things and sometimes, her eyes go empty and her mind leaves her and then, Naninamo is a bit scared for her.

And now Naninamo remembers their first time in the forest again and he looks at Fyra. Her eyes are sharp steel, flittering around the branches that poke through the fog, her ears twitch with every sound. The white fang in her hand is steady and she moves carefully, controlled. She never lets go of her weapon when they are away from home. She seems normal so Naninamo turns back to Diglett who is saying something. Naninamo asks him to say it again because he wasn't paying attention to him and feels bad about it.

oOo

Because Naninamo remembered their first night in the forest, he tries extra hard to pay attention to Fyra when Diglett says that they are almost there.

The statue is in the middle of a clearing. Diglett says that it is large and Naninamo believes him. He can't see much of it because there's fog everywhere. Diglett almost vanishes behind the whiteness and they mostly follow him by his voice. They walk three, four, five and even more steps until something grey and solid comes out of the whispy whiteness of the fog.

It's a thing, hunched over, with a long, flat tail and sharper claws than Naninamo has them. Naninamo grins. This is the statue everyone kept talking about!

"It is Groudon…" Fyra whispers next to him and he remembers that he needs to pay attention to her.

Naninamo looks at her until his eyes burn and he needs to blink but Fyra still seems fine. Her eyes are hard and guarded but that's how they always are. The silverly dust that lies over them reminds him a bit of that statue that just stands here, hunched over, in the middle of Foggy Forest.

"How do you know?" Diglett asks and Naninamo has forgotten why he would ask that.

Fyra knows and something in her eyes changes. She frowns now and shifts the walrein fang into her left hand. She takes longer to answer than usual, her free hand running along her left arm, like she sometimes does.

"I don't know," she says finally, her forehead smoothing the ripples of her frown away. It happens too slowly. She's frustrated, even if her voice is flat.

"Oh… okay," says Diglett. He shifts in his hole. "Anyways! Here we are! What do you think? Is it worth the wait?"

Naninamo laughs and lets Fyra stand to the sidelines while he runs for the statue. So that's Groudon? Chatot told him that there's a legend about Groudon about how it made all the land in the world. Naninamo imagines how it slammed its flat tail onto the ground and how a mountain rose from the shockwave, growing even larger than Groudon but just as round as its hunched back. It's a good thought so he talks about it and other things Groudon might have done, back when the world was all emptiness and flat grounds and nothing.

Fyra comes to the statue then, and she gives him a cautious look. He knows what she's up to. She wants to see into the past of the statue. A rush of excitement fills Naninamo until it is all he can think about. He jumps down from Groudon's head and joins her, skipping from one foot to the other. He hopes Fyra will see who put the statue here. Was it Groudon itself? But it's a bit rude to just drop statues of yourself wherever. Mama always said that pride comes before the fall and that you should never put yourself above others. Naninamo isn't sure what she meant, and he can't ask her anymore. Maybe he can ask Fyra, later, when they aren't trying to find out the secret of Groudon.

Fyra lays a hand onto the statue and even with her fingers spread wide she can't put them around Groudon's leg. Her eyes close and Naninamo isn't quick enough when she suddenly falls back with a gasp.

She hits the grass with a low thud. The walrein fang lands next to her. She can never keep her fingers tense when this happens. For a moment, Naninamo's vision clouds and he's angry at himself. This always happens and he can never catch her. Naninamo takes the spike of anger and buries it far away in his mind.

Diglett is already at Fyra's side when Naninamo finally sinks down next to her. Diglett has never seen this happen, so he asks, his voice loud and garbled at the end. "What happened? Is she alright? What _happened?"_

"Sometimes, when Fyra touches things, she can see _things_," Naninamo explained like he's explained it to Aunt Kangaskhan and to Mederi, the Chansey and to Green back when Green was just becoming their friend and hadn't seen it happen yet.

"She sees things? What things?" Diglett is a well of questions. Naninamo likes that. It reminds him of himself. He also likes questions that he knows the answers to.

"Mostly what happened before, in the past. That's how we found Green." He doesn't say that this is how Fyra killed Drowzee because it's a bad thing he doesn't want to think about… Only sometimes, the thoughts just come to him and won't leave him alone and now he thinks about how Fyra looked in that moment, covered in blood and eyes molten steel, shaking in ice-cold fury.

"The machop…" Diglett says slowly and thanks to that, Naninamo can push the memories away. He doesn't catch what the guild member says next, but that's okay. When Naninamo can listen again, Diglett is saying, "The case was a year old. We never knew how you figure out where he was…" Right, Green. Diglett was there. The entire guild needed to come and help them free their friend.

Naninamo tilts his head. Why did Diglett say that he didn't know how they found Green? Naninamo told the guild master! Wigglytuff likes to talk so much, he told his guild for sure. Naninamo thinks a bit more. Diglett probably doesn't remember that, because when Fyra sees things, it's not important to most people.

"So she really see things from the past? Like what people say and do?"

Naninamo nods. He wants to explain more, wants to talk about nice things that Fyra sees. Not the bad parts, how she ripped Drowzee's past from him…

Fyra opens her eyes and sits up. She's calm and ready how she always is. Mostly is. Her left hand grabs her fang, her right hand runs across her arm.

"Are you okay?" asks Diglett and she turns to him in a wooden movement. She blinks and the frown is back.

"I am," she says and Naninamo can't wait any longer. He takes her hand in his, and his spirits are too high, so he doesn't flinch at the heat. Her head whips around to look at him.

"Tell me!" he sings. "What did you see? Did Groudon build the statue? It makes earth and mountains and stuff, it can build statues of itself, right?" Another thought strikes him, and he spits out excitedly, "It was Uxie! Was it Uxie?"

Fyra smiles and her steel gaze warms. "I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't see who made the statue."

She might do that if she touches it again. He starts to say so much but remembers half-way that she hasn't told him what she's seen instead.

Diglett hasn't forgotten that and asks, "Did you really see something?"

Fyra looks at him and her eyes remain soft, her face open. "Yes… I saw… an exploration team. I… think we've seen them before, in Treasure Town." She pauses because when Fyra is uncertain, she takes a lot of time to think. Sometimes, that makes her forehead furrow and then smoothen too slow in frustration. Not this time. Her face is as even as her tone is flat. "It's the team that Weavile leads. He was a lot younger. They stood at this statue as we are now, and they thought… they thought it could somehow lift the fog?" That last part is more a question than a statement. There are the furrows on her forehead, the frustration seeping in.

Diglett spins in his hole to look at the statue again. "This thing can lift the fog? We should tell the others!"

It's the first time someone doesn't question Fyra when she talks about her visions. Naninamo really likes this guild, even Chatot and his big words and gestures. Maybe it would have been nice to join them when Antar asked him to, so many months ago.

They don't go immediately. Naninamo holds Fyra, so she doesn't fall, and she lets the past take her away.

Fyra almost never hears people talk in her visions. She's just watching events unfold as she explained to him.

She looks into the past five more times and four times she doesn't hear a sound. The last one… the last one.

"It was just black. I… Someone talked about Groudon."

Naninamo wants to cheer because finally someone talked but her eyes are distant and far away so he grabs her hand instead to keep her from leaving.

Her eyes wander to the statue. "There's something missing. A stone. It's supposed to go into its chest."

"So that's what lifts the fog!" Naninamo shouts. It's the best thing they've heard all week. Without the fog, they'll find Fogbound Lake for sure!

Diglett is just as happy. "That's useful!" His nose twitches and his next words come out quieter. "Uhm, I hope you're okay, Chimchar. But it's really good that you have this ability!"

Naninamo thinks of bloodied Drowzee and then thinks of Green's relief. He pushes both away because Diglett is right.

"We'll look for the stone next!" Naninamo promises and he's cheerful and hopeful. They will find Fogbound Lake soon.

oOo

Three weeks later and they haven't found Fogbound Lake. None of Fyra's visions show anything useful and the fog stays all the same. Everyone looks for the stone, even if no one knows what it looks like. Sunflora keeps worrying that it's not even in the forest and that they need a second expedition to find the stone and then come back to Foggy Forest with a _third_ expedition and Oh My Gosh! it all takes so long.

Naninamo doesn't mind. The fog is always changing, and they always discover new things in the forest. No statues though. Just large combee colonies, chirping surskits chasing each other across vast lakes (none of them are Fogbound Lake because Uxie isn't there), more breelom that Bidoof can shout about.

Naninamo and Fyra travel with Sunflora, with Chimchecho, with Loudred and with Dugtrio. They talk about the guild, the missions, the wanted posters. They talk about the treasure of Fogbound Lake. They even talk about Groudon and its sibling Kyogre, and Rayquaza who watches over them. Rayquaza once destroyed a falling star and saved the whole world. It's a nice story and Naninamo makes sure to remember it so he can tell it to Marill and Azurill when they come back to Treasure Town.

Teams shuffle a lot and when week four in the forest draws to a close, Chatot thinks that they know the creatures in it well-enough. He thinks, it's okay if it's only two in one team so that they can cover more ground.

Fyra and Naninamo stop often in their search to see if one particular stone or one particular tree opens a window into the past. Most don't. Groudon's statue is special. Drowzee was special too. They don't know why some things cause visions and some things don't. What Fyra does see is more exploration teams that wander around the forest, just as lost as they are. Most often, she sees Weavile's team.

"Their eyes were glassy and their movement jerky," Fyra says after sitting up from her latest vision. She looks at the boulder that has shown her the past. A tree has grown around it, its trunk bend around the stone.

"Weavile's team?" Naninamo asks.

"Yes… I didn't hear what they said but it looked like they were about to leave the forest." She rests her fang onto her crossed legs and leans her head against the tree. "I think they found Uxie."

Naninamo sits down next to her and breathes out before hugging her. She's always so _warm_ and he usually doesn't mind that, except that it's not so nice when everything outside is so cold. It takes a moment before she slings her arms around him.

"Were my eyes glassy too?" she asks, and she sounds so small. Fyra shouldn't sound small. She's the strongest person (the most ruthless) that Naninamo knows!

"No," he says. Finding Fyra on the beach wasn't a bad moment. He remembers it well. It's only after… afterwards that things were bad for a while. "Your eyes are strange, they have this dusty stuff in them. But that's how they always are!" They go glassy when she cries. Not when her mind moves way. Then, they become empty and lifeless, dead. He tries to tell her that, but the words come slowly, he doesn't want to say them.

Fyra understands. They wonder if it was really Uxie that erased her memories.

oOo

It was a lot easier to track Green back then. Fyra saw him talk to people, the direction he went. They just went into the same direction and would find a new vision and slowly figured out what happened to him.

It's different in the forest. They catch glimpses of Weavile when a stone yields and brings forth a vision, when the trees talk of the past, but they can never be sure where to place the snippets. When in the timeline, they took place. Fyra tries to look for glassy eyes but they don't show up often, buried under all the other things that the visions bring forth. Exploration teams that weren't as successful as Weavile or the daily life in the forest. They run in circles through the wet greenery and report their findings to the increasingly hopeless faces of the guilds. None of the others are successful, either.

Chimecho makes Position Orbs for them when someone made it particularly far into the forest. They can place it into the ground and afterwards, others can reach them with their Return Orb. Foggy Forest is so large, they have made over a dozen of such drop-off points and Chimecho has nearly run out of unused orbs to enchant.

A vision of glassy-eyed Weavile shows up on one of the drop-off points that the guild master created. They walk into the direction Weavile came from and Fyra says that the trees and rocks and hills are still all in the same places.

From way ahead, the sound of water falling weaves through the trees.

"There's a river close by!" Naninamo says and Fyra nods.

The follow a path upward. Behind the fog, the pleasant gurgle of water turns into a defeating roar. Suddenly, the path ends and there's wet and long grass on the ground. It sways in a turbulent current. There's the river and it's bubbling in rapid motion. From up, up, up and out of the fog, comes a waterfall and it buries itself into the river. It's so loud, Naninamo can't talk to Fyra anymore. Water goes everywhere and Fyra crunches her nose when the spray lands on her. They move a bit away from the river.

"It's strange," Fyra says. Shouts. She doesn't shout often but he can't hear her if she talks quietly. "Where does the water come from?!"

"Maybe there's a mountain on the other side of the river?" Naninamo points to where the fog barely lets them see the opposite riverbank.

Fyra agrees. "We should look for a way to the other side."

The current is really strong. Naninamo can't say for sure if he can make it across. He's a good swimmer but Fyra can't go into the water.

"I can go across," he says and pulls out the red Position Orb that Chimecho gave them this morning.

Fyra looks at the water, and her forehead has a deep furrow in it. That's not frustration. She's thinking hard. She's worried. Naninamo wants to reassure her but the water is dangerous.

"Let's see if there's another way across," she says and so they do.

There are more waterfalls from nowhere plunging into the river but no way across. Naninamo rolls the Position Orb in his hands. Fyra grips her fang tightly. They could call Corphish. Maybe he's a better swimmer than Naninamo.

They pass a tree that has fallen into the river. Its roots are stuck in the riverbank so the current can't take it away. It vanishes below the surface half-way in and its bark glistens with foam and wetness.

Fyra studies the spray of water where the river pushes against the tree crown. Naninamo thinks that he might make it if he runs along the trunk into the middle of the river. They continue because maybe they'll find a better way across.

Around and around they go. The river is massive and there are waterfalls everywhere. Maybe the waterfalls make the river? Maybe there is no mountain, just water from nowhere?

Something happens. Something even stranger than the waterfalls. Naninamo blinks and from one moment to the next, the fog is gone.

The rolling whiteness, the wisps that hide the forest, it's all gone. Naninamo has to close his eyes because the sun is up, and he hasn't seen it for almost a month. The light hurts.

He wipes at his eyes and turns to Fyra. Like always, Fyra is fascinated. She can look at the sky for hours. At least, she's not looking directly at the sun, like she did the first time they met.

She's too fascinated to see where the waterfalls come from, but Naninamo isn't.

"Look Fyra! Look!" he cries and shakes his friend until she peels her eyes away from the sky.

The waterfalls come from a mountain after all. It's huge! Like the entire forest is huge. The mountain reminds Naninamo of the goblets that Aunt Kangaskhan has in her pantry. A narrow stem of dark stone that holds a huge, wide bowl. Water spills from the bowl and falls into the river. The mountain rises so far above them that it can be seen from all around the forest.

"Uxie needs all the fog just to hide the mountain!" Naninamo says because of course that's why the fog has been there.

Fyra taps him on the arm and points to the river. Without the fog, they can see the entire clearing. Past the river, the stem of the goblet mountain begins, and the river surrounds it in a wide circle. They can't see a way across.

"I think that Fogbound Lake is atop the mountain. That's where the water is coming from!" Naninamo repeats in case Fyra didn't understand him the first time. He also decides that the fallen tree is their best option.

Fyra isn't happy and she makes him hold a blue Return Orb in his hand. It triggers with a thought.

He doesn't need it. Thanks to the tree, he makes it across the river on his first try. They haven't done anything exhausting today. He pulls himself up the riverbank and his arms are shaking but he's fine. He waits for a while until the world isn't spinning around him anymore. Fyra is pacing on the other side of the river and he gives her a cheerful wave. He walks a few meters and drops their Position Orb into the ground. Now everyone can come here.

Fyra is the first to do so, using her Return Orb to cross the river. It's barely past noon and she wants to see if there's a way up the mountain.

They check the base, the stem of the goblet but it alone is easily as large as Treasure Town. Maybe even larger. A while later, Chimecho is in Naninamo's head and he tells her what they found out. She says that the guild will use their drop-off point in a bit, and he smiles. She can see that, he thinks.

There's no easy way up the mountain. The stem is sheer with barely no hand-holds. Or so Fyra says. Also, they would have to climb the goblet bowl somehow and that is so large, it would take too long. They would get exhausted and fall, no matter what they do.

"I'm not even sure if Chatot could fly this far up," Fyra says. "It's at least four hundred meters."

She's always so sure of her distance but she can't tell a week from a month. Fyra is strange.

There's no way up from the outside but they find a lot of tunnels that lead inside the mountain stem.

So they wait for the guild.

oOo

Wigglytuff and Chatot agree that Fogbound Lake is likely atop the mountain. They bring the camp along to the drop-off point and everyone helps setting up the tents. The mountain is so huge, they think it might take another three weeks until they have found a way up.

Chimecho exhausts all her energy and makes Chatot a Return Orb to Treasure Town. He comes back a few hours later, loaded up with more Position Orbs and more food that doesn't grow in the forest. Bidoof and Antar tell Naninamo all about how Dugtrio found the red stone that's missing from the statue's chest and how Groudon's eyes lit up when they put it in its proper place, and then the fog was gone. Naninamo pouts because he would have liked to see that happen. He also wishes that he could go with them into the mountain.

Chimecho has to recover for a few days and Fyra caught a cold, so Naninamo stays with them and guards the tents. There are volbeat and illumise flittering about the mountain stem and they aren't too happy about the intrusion. Naninamo chases them off and he doesn't think about what Fyra would do to them. Fyra is not very good at understanding other people. She always thinks they want to hurt her, so she strikes at them with everything she has.

The insects learn to avoid the camp and don't bother them again.

Naninamo wouldn't mind trading places with Corphish or Diglett or Croagunk, but Fyra has distance in her eyes and she seems flighty and unfocused. Naninamo stays with her so she doesn't leave.

Something about Fogbound Lake, how it looks, it changes something in Fyra, and she can't tell Naninamo what it is. Even if he pays attention, even if he listens hard. There are some memories that aren't completely gone but they always bubble under the surface, coming out like ripples in the river. That, Naninamo can understand.

They wait out Fyra's cold which goes away faster than Chimecho's exhaustion. They trade places with Croagunk and head into the mountain.

oOo

It's warm, inside. It's pleasant and then it's hot. Touching Fyra isn't painful anymore.

The mountain isn't as dark as Naninamo thought it would be. Fyra's flame travels over glowing moss growing on the walls until streams of lava light up the walls in red and orange. The air tastes like ash. Water runs down the walls and vanishes in sizzling steam. The lava is at the bottom of deep gorges, but it heats up the entire mountain.

They tested all of the entrances with Fyra's vision but nothing comes up. She doesn't have any visions at all, not even ones that aren't about Weavile. This has never happened before.

Fyra thinks something about Fogbound Lake blocks her visions. Naninamo thinks that this _must _mean that Fogbound Lake is atop the mountain. He's thrilled to finally be inside and look, even if it's annoying and hot.

They don't find anything their first day. They didn't use one of the drop-off points the others created and just headed straight in.

The only thing they learn is that visions don't work inside the mountain either. Which seems obvious to Naninamo.

"We can't make any assumptions," Fyra says later that day when they are back at the camp.

They're having Chimecho's jaboca-rawst salad. The berries are full of water and help with cooling down but Naninamo hates the bitter taste.

He nibbles on some pechas because they are sweet and make him forget the bitterness.

Naninamo also nods because Fyra makes sense. "Okay. Are there more assumption-thingies we need to watch out for?" He doesn't get an answer.

Instead, Sunflora joins their conversation. "You could use our latest drop-off point!" she exclaims. She runs a brush with nobs along her leaves and Naninamo doesn't know why.

"Yup, yup!" Bidoof comes over to them. "We made it pretty high up, maybe you'll see something then?"

A lot of pokémon talk at the same time, so Naninamo has trouble grasping what they all are saying. There are a lot off drop-off points inside the mountain to choose from. Chimecho doesn't leave the camp anymore. It's hard for her to keep track of all of them and linking the Return Orbs for everyone. She likes cooking though so she does that while they are out exploring.

When they go to sleep, Fyra sums up what the others told them about who's Position Orb they should follow up on. Fyra lays out all the facts and then looks at Naninamo expectantly. It's a week's worth of exploration to choose from.

"It's weird that nobody got to the top yet," Naninamo says.

"The mountain is large and from the sound of it, the terrain is untraversable…" Fyra pauses for a second and explains, "A lot of ways have high cliffs or tunnels too small to fit anyone. It's hard to go anywhere."

Naninamo straightens as he remembers. "Right, Sunflora pushed her Position Orb through a crack in the wall to get to the other side, she told us that! We should use that one for our exploration!"

"Okay," Fyra says.

Only, they can't use it. Yesterday, Sunflora tested it and it worked fine but now, the drop-off point can't be selected from the Return Orb anymore. Some of the ones in the forest don't work anymore too, because they are too old. Or maybe because someone tripped them up and destroyed them.

"Uxie has destroyed it," Naninamo says, because that's obvious isn't it? It reminds him that she's maybe reading his thoughts, so he makes sure to tell her they won't give up and if it really isn't okay to look at her treasure.

"I don't know. Maybe I just misplaced it. I had the feeling that it didn't really stick yesterday," Sunflora says and worries her leaf. She doesn't have her knobbly brush today.

Bidoof pats her on her flower stem. "Don't say that! Yup, yup! I believe it was the group of magmar we saw when we left. Maybe they didn't like us putting the orb there."

"It was definitely Uxie!" Naninamo decides. "What's the closest drop-off point to the one you lost?"

That's where Fyra and he are heading.


End file.
